The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-06-21
TERRIFIC FALL.
The Worlds" Balloon Iushes Downward
Nearly Three Miles No One Hurt.

The "worId's' Balloon Rush.s Downward
Nearly Three Miles No One Hurt.
The New York Worlds account of the
trial trip of its great balloon gives the
following thrilling incident
Suddenly Hazen sings out: Were
going too fast. We're above the clouds.
Sure enough, on looking ouside there lay
below us great banks of fleecy vapor. |
reached my hand from the car and could
feel from above us the sun shine full and
strong. Through the clouds | peered as
through veil at the earth beneath.
Here and there were rents i'm the cloudy
strata, through which, as through peep
holes i'm "A white mask, i could perceive
the wide, endless map of green, gray
and yellow spots. l shivered as the cold,
clammy vapor permeated my cloth
ing. Hazen sings out as he looks at
the aneroid barometer: Were 1880
feet and still going up" At this time
the temperature had descended to Al de-
grees. A few minutes later Hazen an
nounces: 'Sixteen thousand feet alti-
tude. This is the highest, believe, any
balloon has been i'm this country" He
adds with some enthusiasm; The tenn
perature has got down to 81"
Doughty meanwhile shoots off his
camera at the clouds. Click, click comes
the sound of his apparatus as the instan-
taneous exposures are made. He had
previously taken a dozen landscaIa
views. Moore sits all huddled up in "A
heap, dejectedly gazing at me, with eyes
half closed and looking like a very sick
man. Hazen leans outside to my left,
swinging his pyschrometer outside the
car. l sit on one of Doughty's boxes,
holding in my lap writing
board, on which l am writing the third
page of a large sheet of tissue paper. The
= E.r Ia,
I'VE are falling dreadfuliy." He throws
out a bunch of circulars. Instead of de-
scending or floating with us, they shoot
upward as they leave his hand like steam
from an exhaust pipe. Moore springs to
his feet. ''Out with the ballast boys
Weak as he is, he grabs what he can and
casts it over. Doughty and Hazen have
already dropped their instruments and
each grabs a bag of sand. Over they
go. As the sand leaves the bag it flies
upward as if from gun. Ii strikes the
gas bag above us and gradually settles
down into the car, filling.eyes, ears and
nostrils almost to suffocation.
TERRIBLE FALL IN MID-AIR.
/ realize the peril. i spring to my
feet. The circulars and sand shooting
upward, and the terrific roaring in my
ears, with the appalling sense of the
frightful velocity with which the car is
dropping away from under us, are
enough to warn us. ] stand in the centre
of the car. As / look off over the edge
Of it perceive the earth flying upward.
The hitherto small green and yellow
spots grow larger.
We can distinguish the greensward
and the fields of ripeniAg wheat, diversi-
fled by patches Of forest. Now
the fields spread out and the fences
appear. Here a cabin and there
town, here glistening crys-
tai stream and yonder gray-white
highway. My view of these objects is
but momentary. ''Over with ballast,
over with BALLAST yells Moore, himself
throwing out what he can. The air
about is full of the things we cast over,
and which fly upward the instant they
leave the car. Something wrong, boys.
III we don't stop her right away we're
lost. Overheard, quick, with everything
Out go the sand and the circulars the
faster. catch hold of the great hickory
hoop overhead and prepare for the
worst. Up comes the tops Of the forest
trees until the 200 feet Of drag-rope
touched them. Up again until the rope
settles upon the ground 200 feet or more.
thus relieving the car of its weight.
THE SARRowEsT OF ESCAPES.
Then our downward motion percep.i-
bly, decreases. The circulars float slow
ly upward from the car, and began fall
ing and futtering below US. We have
reachrd the turning point, 400 feet high,
and we are safe. Then we breathe easier.
and stand and gaze at one another in
quiringly. How did il happen?' ! ask.
Moore replies, Il can't account for it,
The bag must be torn at the top. Some
one during the excitement of feeling
pulled that rip cord. | never saw any
thing like it; from the uncom-
mon height of sixteen thousand feet IN
space Of time which seemed less than
two minutes we dropped to 400 feet.
That settles il boys; we've got 10 come
down before dark, said Moore. Ballast
was thrown and we ascended to about
two thousand feet, sailing over farm
house. Moore, who was now thoroughly
awake, yelled down: How far are we
from st. Louisy' The ipdistinct answer
was, twenty-five miles" Here World
envelope was dropped containing a dis
patch written above Il : clio .ds befo q
the terrible fall began. Shortly after
this one Of the Festus pigeons was flown,
and an hour or SO later one Of the Crys-
tai Citys, each bearing message tied
to the leg.